Still Getting There - Pa-Paakyat (01.15.2020)

Hip hop gigs have turned into one of my favorite types of gigs. Raw energy. Moshing. Bravado. Community. Political awareness. But sometimes too much of a good thing is bad.

The event was split into 2 - an open mic to kick off the evening and a curation of main acts to round things out. The open mic had 11 performers and it was a mixed bag. Only a few acts stood out to me - and we’ll talk about them in a few more sentences - but the length of this portion really stood out. Yes, rap acts probably take up less time than bands because of fewer equipment, but listening to only one genre can be tiresome and the number of performers didn’t help. It did allow me to make a few observations, though. About 90% of the acts rapped/sang about love - I guess it’s the easiest thing to talk about. Some acts did talk about the hardships of growing up but I think only one rapped about politics - Yohi. Another was also brave enough to talk about suicide - V fade. What also stood out were the open verses - just raw lyricism over beats or none at all - and showcased their freestyle capabilities. Most songs also had the typical verse-chorus-verse and multi-chorus outro format that felt a bit too long. I think the best way to stand out is to talk about non-conventional topics and just to mix the song structure up a bit.

The 2nd part of the evening were the main acts and I really liked the diversity. The rappers had really good stage presence and some even did some RnB vocals. There was Zae - the only female performer for the evening. Her performance could have been more impactful if not for some apparent hesitation. The whole 2nd half would have been better if the acts had more time to perform. The last performers only played about 3 to 4 songs due to time constraints.

Having an open mic can be a double-edged sword: on the one hand, you give artists the opportunity to practice and get new fans but on the other, the abundance may be too much. The sheer amount of acts could also take time and attention away from the main acts. All in all, this kind of event structure is entertaining. The number of open mic acts just needs to be tweaked.

It took some time to understand what the prod wanted to achieve with this event. It wanted to give support to those who wanted a shot at the limelight while also showing what can be attained. If the mix of performers is right, the next event could be bigger.